They shook hands.
“Not that I’m complaining,” Joe said, “but why am I her new best friend?”
“You’re going to make sure nothing happens to her,” Kurt said. “And, more important, that she doesn’t cause any problems for the rest of us.”
“I’ve never been the chaperone before,” Joe said.
“First time for everything,” Kurt said. “Now, how are we doing?”
“Power’s back up,” Joe said. “Battery is pretty low, but the solar panels and the wind turbine are carrying the load.”
“Did we find anything?”
Paul spoke first. “Once Joe got the power back on, I was able to access the tracking mode on the GPS. They kept to a westerly course until a little after eight p.m. on the last night they reported in. Then the course and speed become erratic.”
“Any idea why?”
“We think that’s when the incident occurred,” Paul said. “The sail was partially burned in the fire. Losing its shape would change the boat’s profile and speed. Looks like it began to drift.”
“Where were they when this happened?”
“About four hundred miles west-southwest of here.”
“What else?”
“Nothing out of the ordinary on the ship’s log or in any of their notes or computer files,” Paul said. “But Gamay found something of interest, as usual.”
Kurt turned to Gamay.
She held up a glass beaker with an inch of charcoal-colored water in it.
“This is the residue left behind by the fire. I mixed it with distilled water. In most cases, soot is primarily carbon. And while there’s plenty of that in this sludge, it’s also carrying a strange mix of metals: tin, iron, silver, even trace amounts of gold. And a strange speckling that’s quite hard to see.”
Kurt looked closely at the water in the beaker, there was an odd, almost iridescent shimmer to it.
“What’s causing it?”
Gamay shook her head. “None of my equipment was strong enough to tell us. But they had a microscope on board. Once Joe got its power on, we photographed the samples. Whatever it is, it’s moving.”
“Moving?” Kurt repeated. “What do you mean moving?”
“It’s not inert,” she said. “The carbon and the residue are still, but something on or within the residue is still active. Whatever it is, it’s so small, we can’t make it out under a microscope.”
The news seemed to make Leilani uncomfortable. Kurt thought about tabling the discussion for later, but this was the deal: it was going to be uncomfortable, and if she couldn’t handle it, now was the time to realize that.
“Are we talking about a bacteria or some other microorganism?” Kurt asked.
“Could be,” Gamay said. “But until we get a closer look, all we can do is guess.”
Kurt considered this. It was strange, but it didn’t really tell them anything. For all they knew, whatever they’d found in this residue had been deposited on the boat after the fire.
“Could this strange discovery, whatever it is, have caused the fire?” he asked.
“I tried to burn it,” Gamay said. “The residue isn’t flammable. It’s oxidized carbon and metals.”
“If that’s not the cause, then what was?”
Gamay looked to Paul, who looked at Joe. No one wanted to deliver the bad news.